A Solution for Faster Vise Jaw Change-Overs

Posted on:12/18/2013

This an angle lock vise design is said to enable users to change jaws in 30 seconds.

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Winn Manufacturing in Granville, N. Y. is like every other shop in that it consistently looks for ways to speed change-overs. In fact, it has recently turned one solution into a product line.

The shop had a few custom vise jaws that it changed back and forth on a regular basis. However, this was a time-consuming task because the vises used standard bolt-on jaws. This problem led to the development of the Winn Speed Lock vise, an angle lock vise that enables users to change jaws in 30 seconds.

The photos to the left demonstrate how they work. Jaws lock into the fixed and moveable mounting blocks using a cylinder-shaped nut and a standard 1/2-inch socket head cap screw. To remove the jaws, the user only needs only to loosen each holding cap screw by a quarter to a half of a turn, enabling the jaw to be easily lifted out of the mounting block. New jaws install by reversing this process. The cylinder-shaped jaw nuts and cap screws remain attached to each jaw when it is not is use.

According to the company, this design does not reduce the travel of the movable jaw and does not change vise opening size like some other quick-change jaw systems. The Speed Lock vise enables jaws to be mounted on the inside or the outside of both the fixed and moveable mounting blocks. Because this vise uses the same hole pattern as most other angle lock vises, shops are able to use all of their existing/legacy custom vise jaws by simply adding a set of cylinder-shaped nuts and cap screws to them.

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